Short Hops: Humility, hunger help Hoffman to 600 saves

Short hops, quick pops and backhand stops:

• In 1993, when Trevor Hoffman collected the first five saves of his career -- two for the Marlins, three for the Padres after being dealt to San Diego in the Gary Sheffield deal -- Lee Smith was the active leader with 401 career saves, Bobby Thigpen of the White Sox held the single-season record with 57 and the Cubs' Randy Myers would lead the majors with 53.

Trevor Hoffman's 600th save gives the Brewers some reason to celebrate. (AP)

Nearly two decades later, Francisco Rodriguez -- then of the Angels -- owns the single-season record with 62 saves and Tampa Bay's Rafael Soriano and San Francisco's Brian Wilson share the major-league lead with 41.

Names change. Teams change. When Hoffman collected his first few saves, Soriano's Rays weren't even in existence. Mariano Rivera was still two years from debuting with the Yankees.

Now, only two men in history have crossed the 500-saves threshold: Hoffman, who collected his 600th on Tuesday night against St. Louis, and Rivera, who sits at 555 and may well chase down and pass Hoffman two or three years from now.

"Absolutely amazing," Dodgers manager Joe Torre, the man who called upon Rivera for 443 of those saves, says of Hoffman reaching 600. "That's all about black and white. That's living a lot of years not being in a gray area. You save it or you don't save it."

You've got to dismiss a whole lot of failure during that time, Torre was saying, otherwise you don't (or can't) do the job. More this year than any other, Hoffman, 42, has been all too familiar with failure. Brewers manager Ken Macha had to remove him from the closer's role early when Hoffman blew five of his first 10 save opportunities. His ERA was 13.15. His nine saves are by far his fewest since that '93 season.

Yet, in life, there always is more to learn from failure than success. And what Hoffman, long the essence of class in the game, had to teach in these moments is what will be part of his legacy. When the long-awaited moment came Tuesday night and Hoffman and the Brewers were alone in the clubhouse toasting No. 600?

Before thanking his teammates, he apologized.

"He said, 'I'm sorry I put the team in a bind at the start of the year. I take full responsibility,'" Brewers general manager Doug Melvin told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "You don't hear things like that very often. He's a great spokesman for the game."

Career Save Leaders
Player	Total
1. Trevor Hoffman-y	600
2. Mariano Rivera-y	555
3. Lee Smith	478
4. John Franco	424
5. Billy Wagner-y	417
y-active

Work hard. Take responsibility. Stay humble.

From the perch of 600 saves, or in a first-grade classroom, these are pretty good lessons that can take you a long way in life.

This is expected to be Hoffman's farewell. He and the Brewers have a mutual player/club option for 2011, but the club surely will decline it at $7.5 million. Hoffman is keeping tight-lipped about his plans, but given what a grind this year has been -- including taking a cortisone injection to calm an aching elbow -- many expect him to hang 'em up now that he's gotten 600.

We'll see.

"What a tremendous feat," Padres manager and long-time pitcher Bud Black marvels. "There's nothing I respect more than a player passing the test of time with his performance, and Trevor has done that."

He's done it with his performance between the lines ... and in a whole lot of other areas as well.

• No official word yet from Joe Torre, but he is not expected back as manager of the Dodgers next season. Even $5 million or so a year probably isn't enough to stomach the ugly divorce trial between Frank and Jamie McCourt and a hamstrung organization.

• Last time he was managing a team that was not in contention in September? Torre was thinking about that Wednesday, and it was in 1993 when he piloted St. Louis to a third-place finish. "They're not meaningless yet," Torre said of the Dodgers' games this week. "But you're as close to being a spoiler to people as to anything else."

• Torre on how he's dealing with his first close-to-meaningless September since '93: "Philosophically. I wish I could have been more help in finding something that made a difference. Because that's my job. I know it sounds like I'm playing a role, but you go to sleep at night thinking about which conversations you can have with which guys so that the light bulb goes on."

• Fired Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez likely will have his pick of jobs this winter. Cubs general manager Jim Hendry is said to be very interested in Gonzalez, and we already know the Braves are. Which would leave Ryne Sandberg as ... bench coach? Looking for a manager job elsewhere? Returning to Triple-A Iowa? Or maybe as Cubs skipper if Gonzalez follows Bobby Cox, as long has been expected.

• That exhibition of "umpiring" by Bob Davidson the other night in Milwaukee was brutal. Davidson embarrassed his profession.

• The Twins and Justin Morneau remain optimistic that the slugger will return to the lineup before the end of the regular season. Morneau, battling post-concussion syndrome, was buoyed by having five consecutive good days through midweek.

• Too little, too late? Cards ace Chris Carpenter, after whiffing 11 Reds and walking none in winning Sunday, is 6-2 since July 8 and hasn't allowed more than three earned runs in any start. "It's been a battle all year with my mechanics," Carpenter says. "The last few times out I've started feeling better, and today was probably the closest I've felt to normal all year, which I'm excited about. This year has been for me an interesting year mechanically, so I'm going to go out and work on it and hopefully I can build off of it."

• Among the things working against the Cardinals is their Baskin-Robbins schedule, a grueling run of 31 games in 31 days to finish the season.

• Wednesday night in Arizona, San Francisco's Barry Zito made his 10th consecutive start without earning a win. That's the longest such stretch of his career.

• If Boston parts ways with arbitration-eligible Jonathan Papelbon following the season, history will show the final straw as his Sunday meltdown against the White Sox. He blew his seventh save opportunity of the season, failed to cover second during one key play and his attitude was lackadaisical about the whole thing afterward.

• Difficult not to pull for the Brewers' Chris Capuano as he continues his comeback following two Tommy John ligament transfer surgeries (that sound of shuddering you heard is from Stephen Strasburg's camp).

• Despite rookie Jaime Garcia's rough outing in Wednesday's loss at Milwaukee, his ERA remains only 2.69. Which, as STATS LLC points out, leaves St. Louis on track to become the first team since 1989 to fail to qualify for the playoffs despite having three starting pitchers with ERAs of less than 3.00 (Garcia, Carpenter and Adam Wainwright).

• Tremendous tribute to Armando Galarraga's 27-out perfect game earlier this summer, from Dan Bern and Common Rotation with the Perfect Game Song at The Saint in Asbury Park, N.J. Do yourself a favor and check it out.